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With 200 attendees of the DuPage Women Liberty luncheon held Jan. 27th at Carriage Greens Country Club in Darien, Michale Callahan, author of Too Politically Sensitive repeatedly brought them to their feet.

Callahan, a retired Illinois State Police (ISP) lieutenant, kept the packed room spellbound as explained the 1986 brutal murders of the Dyke and Karen Rhoads of Paris, Ill., the wrongful convictions of Randy Steidl and Herb Whitlock, and his years of attempting to reopen the investigation. “Five times I tried to reopen the murder case of this young, newlywed couple, and each time my superiors told me the case was ‘too politically sensitive’.”

To a packed room, Jen Babbington, Executive Director of Liberty Lunch at For The Good of Illinois kicked off the lunch with a welcome, “Today, you will leave energized. One person can make a difference. The good guys do win.” Hank Kruse, Chairman of For The Good of Illinois wecomed the over 40 elected officials and candidates for office, including the Elizabeth Roskam, wife of Congressman Peter Roskam.

The ISP retaliated against the determined lieutenant by transferring him to a desk job. Callahan didn’t give up. He filed a First Amendment federal civil lawsuit against three ISP officers in his chain of command, eventually winning $700,000 in damages. The case was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which decided that public employees should not have protection of speaking out against their employers — another chilling blow in this never-ending tragedy.

Undeterred, Callahan penned Too Politically Sensitive. The book accounts a horrific unsolved double homicide with tentacles to the Five Families of New York and Sicily, a compromised investigation — involving the local state’s attorney, a small town police officer and an ISP investigator — and layers of atrocity topped with two governors eventually convicted on federal corruption charges.

Adam Andrzejewski, founder of For the Good of Illinois, introduced Callahan saying, “I’ve made a decision to issue the clarion call to educate the people of Illinois on exactly what it will take to bring our state back. But, Michale Callahan tells it better than I do. Callahan is a modern-day hero.”

Callahan’s life-changing pursuit of justice with the Rhoads murders has consumed one-fifth of his life. He received the 2011 “Defender of the Innocent” award from the Illinois Innocence Project. He has been featured on CBS 48 Hours and On the Case with Paula Zahn, in addition to numerous public appearances.